A/N: Okay so I'm giving you what I hope is a little inspiration, but I want you guys before reading the rest of my chapters and type in park0urfreak, he's this amazing youtuber who has the best epic songs, and I think if you listen you can tell why my stories have a lot of action Music is a big part of my writing life so listen to these songs and be prepared to have your socks blown off! –F.H
Traveling through the lukewarm climate of Canada wasn't bad; the sun had touched the dense and pristine forest like a veil. The salmon leapt out of the water in order to reach the North. Their bodies shimmering in the sun, I stabbed a few with my sword. Throwing them into the boat, staying hidden from Black bears was another thing. Since many had cubs, mothers were extremely protective. Males were ornery to territory as we crossed Ontario, taking small rivers to get through it quickly. I noticed our fuel gage read near empty, if we didn't stop soon it would die on us.
We came to a small bait shop in the middle of the forest, and yes I know what you're going to say: "Two demigods, going into a bait shop in the middle of the Canadian wilderness, could they be any stupider?" But at the time neither of us had gotten that much sleep in the past few days, and well I kind of wanted beef jerky…
I went in first and was greeted by the sight of an ugly man. His face distorted, his eyes were going either which way besides normal, and his skin sagged like an empty bag. "Hello there, you two. What can I do for you?" Vernita grabbed a gallon of fuel that was stacked on the side of the small shack. She dropped it hard on the counter, making the whole shack shake it seemed. Her face a mask of expression and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do.
"This please." Her polkerface showed no expression, how the hell was she doing that?
"Well you see, I would let you pass but... Then again trolls were never appreciated in your past." His smile was pure evil and the saggy skin was starting to tighten and stretch.
"Ah Hell no!" I hollered, Vernita moved with such grace and agility it was insane. She put a hand in front of my charging body, stopping me in my tracks. "Vernita fuck off!" I growled, but she didn't even flinch at my most threatening force, she didn't even budge. Her face so calm and expressionless, the troll was forming tall. Towering five feet normally then a regular person, and his breath smelled worse then dragon breath…and that my friend, is really hard to beat.
"SON OF ZEUS!" He exploded; I slipped my arms around Vernita and heaving her with all my force across the room. I couldn't look at her when her body slumped on the floor…I couldn't. I turned my gaze to Trollman, and then screamed and threw myself at him. Hurling my sword into his leg, he screeched in pain and fell to the ground. Blood of the monster spewed across the wooden floor. I changed course and leaped onto the counter, planning on slicing into his chest with my sword. But if you've ever fought a troll well then keep in mind, their special…you'll see what I mean in a second.
He sprang up with the speed on a cheetah, lunging for my legs. He caught one; slicing into my calf muscle I bit into my lip. Then kicked straight up with my free one, and ignored the pouring blood from my left leg. The pain was excruciating but I had to continue. I slipped behind his back and went for the back of his head, and he laughed and glided gracefully away from me.
This was the thing I think that pissed me off… Although many things at that moment were making me extremely mad. "YOU ASSHOLE!" I screamed and went for him streaking into him with such a force; it wasn't possible from a normal demigod. I stabbed him in the stomach, he fell onto the ground. But a laugh rang from his mouth,
"You cannot kill me Son of Zeus, I am troll and as you have probably noticed we have amazing healing abilities." Leaping from the ground once more he jumped onto my back clawing into my back, I fell to the ground. As one of his dagger like fingernail claws dug into my neck.
"Leave him!" It a voice like no other… Oh, if I could describe the beauty and power coursing through it. If I could put words to the indescribable force of grace and fierceness I would. When I looked up, a light radiated around the most beautiful wild woman I had ever seen. Her face held high and nothing but magic was in her grasp.
"Goddess…. I-I did n-not know y-you were c-coming to s-see me today." Trollboy stuttered, she laughed. Then I knew… I knew it was her. Her laugh made her face lift up and glide through the air. Then it was brought down, and I saw an emotion in the eyes of this woman. Sadness. Grief. So much was nestled in those deep, dark, and vivid green eyes. She cocked her head and with the snap of her fingers, vines evolved and forced themselves around the troll's neck, he gulped and gasped for breath.
"I can take the life of you away, or I can restore it. Which do you chose, Tenn." It was even a question, it was a choice. A forced choice. But that still triggered the joke in my mind. The troll's name was ten? Heheh, ten.
"My lady," He gasped through her vines, "I would always ch-choose y-you!" He breathed; she released her grip and dropped her arm back to the sides of her hips. She stepped over lightly and shoved the troll off of me. For the first time I saw her. Her brilliant true self, real in the flesh, and right in front of me.
"You are the boy who my spirit now tells me has visited. You are the Son of Jupiter? Are you not?" The way she said my father's name made me feel so special to be in her presence.
"Yes my lady, I mean ma'am-I mean uh, Goddess, or uh-"
"Penelope, call me Penelope." Her eyes were gentle, despite the wild look of her face. Tattoos of rune designs ran all along the jaw line and her cheeks. Her hair flooded down her back like a cascading waterfall, twined around wild flowers. Queen's Ann's Lace and Yellow Tail, and the crown that dipped onto her forehead a jewel with a green crystal stuck inside. The gold glinted in the dim light of the shack. She smiled and it lit the whole face up, making my heart flutter. But something in the back of my mind called. Weak and suffocated. Vernita. I twisted my torso and saw her lying there so limp and broken. My heart gave out and all I could do was stare.
In the few days I had known her she had become my best friend. Then within the blink of an eye she was gone, I don't know how, but the next thing I knew I held her body in my arms. "She's not dead." I looked up and saw her staring at me, "Son of Jupiter, she's hurt. Hurt badly, but it is nothing my magic cannot do." She touched Vernita's pale face. For the most horrible, longest, and anticipated moment of my life she did nothing. A small noise was heard and I looked down, she was breathed in hard and then coughed. Her eyes opened wide and she looked at me, our eyes locked. I forgot about everything else, about Penelope, about Jupiter, about Temus, about the gods, and only knew one thing. Those eyes were my life, and I would do whatever it took to keep them locked on mine forever that way.
"You're bleeding." She said weakly, I smiled and laughed at her.
"It's a paper cut compared to losing you." We froze; ah shit did I seriously just say that? I cleared my throat and set her down gently, she walked around shakily. Penelope stood, her eyes were lighted. The sadness that had been in her eyes was mirrored in my own.
"You need to get to Manitoba, do you not?" We nodded she looked up to the sky. Out of the clouds came two beautiful pegasi. One silver and the other a frosted blond color, I looked to Penelope to give thanks. She smiled as if she had read my mind, "Do not think that since I have saved your life Thilo that the road will ease its rough and sharp-turned journey, for it will not." She stepped into a silver light that was forming and with the wave of a hand she was gone.
I looked to Vernita she shrugged, I walked over the Pegasus with the silver coat, and it flashed its teeth at me. "Yeah you definitely belong to me." I jumped on the stallion's back and leapt into the air. I turned back and saw Vernita was right behind me, I kept going afraid to break the moment's lasting. We flew through the long white clouds; the bitter winds of fall were starting to set in. The Autumn Equinox was in a month, I had to somehow fight Temus and complete the prophecy before then… Oh someone shoot me.
"There! Thilo! There it is! LOOK, LOOK!" I did and I saw him, the Golden Boy. He shined upon the legislative building, the grey light of the sun trying to break through the cloudy day it was. The Golden Boy was Mercury, flowing rich hair and mischievous eyes. He held the caduceus in one hand and his wings expanding over the endless stormy sky. Now here was the tricky part, how do we touch the thing?
"Vernita! I'm going to jump and climb onto his head, and if I disappear you do it too! Got it?" I yelled at her through the sky. She nodded, or at least I thought she nodded she seemed really stiff and nervous. I positioned myself on the Pegasus, starting to stand. As my knees came up and my arms spread across the back of the Pegasus I waited until I could jump better. Five…four…three…two…one…NOW! I leaped, only able to grab a ledge of the building. The mortar burned under my hand, "Ah shit!" Mercury had protected it by a wall.
"Thilo!" Vernita screamed above me, there was only a second before I would have to let go and the building stood above concrete. There was nothing for me to do; Mercury had placed a deadly shield around the Golden Boy, and the slate around it. "Thilo! GRAB MY HAND! Thilo!" She screamed, it had a bird-ish tint to it. Yet I felt that I had to look up at her, she extended her hand. If I took it she would go down too, she couldn't support me. "Thilo, trust me! You have to trust me!" I felt my hand aching, the mortar becoming too much to bare. I lifted a hand from the plaster and reached out for hers. She grasped it, and the silver Pegasus I had been riding swung underneath me. I looked at Vernita, she gestured to the Golden Boy.
"How are we going to get past his wall?" I called.
"Well Hermes was associated with thieves, travels, and Athena…" The last word caught me off guard,
"Minerva? Really?" A/N: Hermes/Mercury never liked or loved Athena/Minerva; they kind of just had an acquaintanceship. Vernita nodded then excitedly started bouncing on the back of her Pegasus.
"What if there's a riddle we have to solve!" I slapped my forehead, sometimes I didn't know about this chick.
"Vernita, I haven't been in school for six years! Get that through your dense skull!" She rolled her eyes,
"Riddles aren't hard you bozo." Then she dove, straight in pursuit of the wall, and of course I went right after her. She curved right around the building until she found it. The corner stone. "Built in 1920! Ah! That's it Thilo! Here remember this." She closed her eyes and when she opened her eyes she looked at me. "Ninety-one!" The Corner Stone started to turn and twist, the number racing past us. As it came to a stop Vernita leaned down and looked in the box. Nothing was in it besides a scrap of paper.
"Left is the babe's spire.
Around the bend will lay a hook.
The melody that was sung that no one heard must be tilted." A/N: I know it's kind of obvious, but hey I was never really a riddle person!
"Left? Thilo, look left and tell me what you see." Vernita kept her head down, her long silvery locks waved in the wind. I looked left and saw the highest tower ever. A/N: Once again this is false information, I suck yes I know. There really isn't a spire on the legislative building. The Golden Boy actually does stand upon the top, although there is still some dispute if he really is Hermes or Zeus. "That's the babe's spire?" Vernita made her Pegasus dive upward and to the top of the tower she looked at it. Then she screamed in frustration, "Ug! Thilo get your ass up here!" I looked up at her and kicked into the flanks of the Pegasus, he neighed, obviously annoyed with the rude kick.
When I reached her, she pointed to a beautifully carved handprint. A tiny lightening bolt traced inside of it, I knew my hand was meant to be placed there, but I was scared. I know, I know, seriously dude? You're scared of placing your hand there? Man, that's sad. But I was, I mean try putting your hand on something you don't know anything of or would like to know of. I braced myself for a pain that was so hurtful, but it didn't come instead. When I touched it something happened, and a golden light formed a babe. With golden hair and skin like the sun, his eyes were a bright blue, and his strong but round cheeks showed the likeness of me in them.
"T-Thilo its Z-Zeus." Vernita stammered, I knew too the bright beautiful boy was my father. "What does it mean?" She asked, but I already knew. Jupiter had crowned Mercury atop a long gangly rock spire, when he was only a babe. Mercury had planned for the architecture to turn out this way, "Thilo!" Vernita shouted at me, I turned to her in a dazed automatic action. Around the bend will lay the hook… I turned around and flew around the corner of the building.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing was there, a flag pole. The Manitoban flag rippled in the wind. "Vernita, there's nothing here! It's just a stupid flag." Vernita cocked her head and then flew down closer. She tilted her head back and laughed,
"You idiot." I turned my head to look at her, "It's not just a flag pole, you have to-" Her fingers closed around the flag pole, then with a quick movement she pulled her hand back. "Ow! It's freaking shocked me!" I turned back to the flag, it shocked her? I twisted it upward and pulled it out, feeling a pulsing beat that wasn't my own heart. It chilled me but it gave me a surge of power. One the flag was out of the hook, I got to see what Vernita had been talking about. Around the bend will lay the hook.
It was…how do I describe it? Odd? Paranormal? The hook was inscribed with golden lettering. The words were not Greek or Latin, but the most peculiar thing about it was, it was shaped like a hand with feathers growing on the knuckles. Vernita inched closer to the hook, and studied the engraving.
"Our saisir la tête du garcon, le héros doit offrir le sang de son proper." A/N: If you're wondering, that's French. You'll see why I chose that language later. I looked closer and slowly the words came to my mind, like a memory that had been stowed away slowly rising to the surface. "To touch the boy's head, the hero must offer the blood of his own." I slipped a knife that had been hanging from Vernita's bag with such speed she didn't notice.
"Thilo! No I'll do it!" I looked up into those eyes, those beautiful languid eyes.
"No Vernita, this is something my father intended to happen. This was the fault my uncle never could do; he was weak-hearted and cared for no one but himself." I plunged the silver blade into my wrist, with a burning agony I dipped my palm towards the outstretched golden hand and the letters burned gold. The palm quenched and opened once more, and then a small piece of emerald colored paper creased from the bronze burning hand. I slipped my fingers under the paper, but shot back for a burning sensation erupted in my finger.
"Vernita it's your-" She waved me away and grabbed up the paper with a swift graceful movement. Then unrolled it her eyes widened in wonder. Awe was winded into the blue burning fires of her eyes and she looked up to the sky. She opened her mouth and no sound came out, then a translucent figure so beautiful whipped into Vernita's open mouth. I shielded my eyes from the great super nova light that flashed around her. She opened her eyes, and her blue eyes were like lamps. The inside lit to another shade of blue, and that to another. It was truly like an endless ocean.
"The melody that was sung that no one heard…must be tilted." She said simply. With that the wall broke and the shining head of the Golden Boy thrust itself upward.